My job takes me around Ireland, as I travel I try to get pictures that show a flavour of the area I am in.
Click on title above to see the complete set of pictures if you have only opened one set.
Please leave comments, its much appreciated to get feedback. These pictures are lower quality copies of the originals, apologies for this.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

I have taken this picture from a similar angle before, but the day I took this I had a little help...

As in a Norwegian friend (pictures below with Norwegian flag T shirt) who travelled around Ireland for a week with myself and Mrs Paz. So keep an eye on her site over the next few months as she took nearly 5000 pictures and you might also read how I fell in the river in Sneem

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

I have taken pictures of the Burren before, while it captured its lunar like landscape, they did not capture its beauty in bloom. While it looks grey and uninteresting, a walk and a closer look reveals some of the reason its a World Heritage site. The first few are shots of the landscape, for more see here and here.

In the cracks there is a variety of plants that thrive in this windswept and wave battered area, some plants found here are unique to this area.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Last Sunday was the Féile (fay-la) an Dóilín, or the Doilin festival, one of Irelands biggest regatta's of the traditional Galway sailing boat the Hooker or in Irish the Húicéir , the name might sound rude but the dutch have a sailing boat with the same name. This festival is on every year at the end along with the Crinniu na mbad (crin-u na bawd) or the Gathering of the boats in Kinvara.

These are the tradional Oak sailing boats of Galway and are small yet Sturdy and very maneuverable in rough seas. They have been sailed in recent years to Boston and to Iceland and other parts of mainland Europe. Anyone who has seen the fountain in Eyre Square will see where it gets its inspiration. I will have to say that I would not have known about this race festival, but for findabair, thank you!

Their origins seem unlear as they draw on influences from other designs from Norse, Eastern to Coptic but the end product is unique with traditionally a distinctive red sail (see comments from Ronan below). Tis type of boath suits the Galway coastline with with the shallow waters in Connemara and the bigger vessels are able to carry up to 22 tonnes of cargo and get trough rough seas.

There are four classes of Boat the first Bád Mór (Bawd More) or big boat which goes from 10.5 to 13.5 metres (35 to 44 feet) . The Leath Bhád (La Whad) or half boat this was arround 10 metres or 28 to 32 feet in length. Both of these were used to transport turf, limestone and whatever was needed on the Islands including livestock.

Next is the Gleoiteog (Glay-thog) it is from 7 to 9 metres (24-28 feet) and has sails like the bigger ships and last is the Púcán (Poo-con) the baby of the fleet, its sails are different. Both of the smaller were usually open decked and used for fishing.

For more info on the racing visit http://www.doilin.com/, some of it is in Irish, if you use google chrome it should be able to translate some of it for you.